The Girl Hidden in Shadows
by nightwish435
Summary: In the lone, far off planet of Kwekwaxawe Kanesda, the "Nest of the Raven", Alessa Gillespie, a girl fathered by the Force itself, has been forced by her mother to carry in her womb the seed of a horrific fiend that, if birthed, could destroy the entire galaxy. In a race against time, and with the help of a lone Jedi, Alessa attempts to end her suffering and her mother's plan.
1. Chapter 1

_In the Unknown Regions of the galaxy was a small, uncharted planet called by the first humans that dwelt there "Kwekwaxawe Kanesda", a name in their language that translated to "Nest of the Raven"._

 _Kwekwaxawe Kanesda was never found on any of the star maps of the Galactic Republic, or its violent successor, the Empire. As such, the only individuals who encountered it were either wanderers or those drawn by what seemed to be an intimate connection to the Force found in the planet. Like Mortis, that ancient planet once dominated by the supremely Force-sensitive beings known as "the Ones", this planet was bound to the all-encompassing power that guided the galaxy, with both the Light and the Dark holding sway over it._

 _On this small, seemingly peaceful planet with rolling green hills and glistening bodies of water similar in design to Dantooine, there was only one city._

 _That city's name was Silent Hill._

 _In this city, the entirety of Kwekwaxawe Kanesda's meager population lived within meager brick and mortar homes, falling far behind the modern style that Coruscant had. The people, mostly humans with a sparse minority of other races, lived in two separate sections of Silent Hill. The northern part held much of the city's recreational sites, such as a meek shopping district filled only with the products of the planet, and whatever items could be bought from the few visitors received. And in the southern district, several vital buildings were erected for the sake of the people's survival, with one of the main hospitals created to heal individuals from mental trauma especially._

 _Unbeknownst to the majority of the populace, dwelling in secret in the city was a cult of Dark fanatics and practitioners similar to the Nightsisters of Dathromir, those women with an affinity for dark magic. This cult, known only as "the Order", worshipped an entity they referred to as "the Mother", yearning for an opportunity to bring her existence to fruition upon their planet. Though their doctrine and creed was that this entity's power would be beneficial for all, in truth, she was nothing more than a fiend solely connected to the Dark side, and all of the rage and hatred that came with it._

 _In order to fulfill their plan, the Order needed to summon their would-be deity by using a female sacrifice to birth her seed. They tried and failed many times, kidnapping many young girls from Silent Hill and destroying their lives in the horrific rituals performed upon their bodies. Eventually, their plan would finally come to fruition when the head priestess of the Order, a sadistic woman named Dahlia Gillespie, would sacrifice her one and only child, Alessa, to the deity, implanting the fiend's seed in her child's womb forcibly._

 _Alessa was chosen because of the bizarre connection to the force she had wielded since her birth. Indeed, among the Order, her birth was forever a mystery, because Dahlia never mated with any of her male cohorts. The woman eventually realized that the Force itself was somehow responsible for her daughter's creation, and reveled in the potential that Alessa's existence could yield. To that end, when Alessa was only 7 years old, just as the genocide known as the Great Jedi Purge began at Darth Sidious's behest in the year 19 BBY, Dahlia Gillespie set her daughter aflame within the basement of their own home. Dahlia deliberately chose to perform this ritual as the Dark side of the Force was strengthened by the loss of hundreds of Jedi._

 _Though Alessa was the one girl to survive this ritual, she was left permanently scarred, burnt all over her body and unable to physically move. The child, now fully aware that she had been lied to by the Order and her own mother, unconsciously unleashed her connection to the Force, drawing herself into the fury of the Dark, and taking revenge on much of the Order by unleashing untold horrors upon the entire planet._

 _Alessa, with her immense pain and hatred, turned Kwekwaxawe Kanesda into a hellish dimension birthed out of her nightmares, and fueled by the terrifying images that the demon in her womb constantly fed her with. The poor girl was unable to die do to the fiend's power over her, along with a magical incantation that Dahlia cast on her after the ritual was finished. Despite this, Alessa refused to let herself be used as a vessel for such an immense evil, and was aided by the Force in combatting her mother and the Order by spiritually resisting._

 _Travis Grady, an ex-Mandalorian warrior who was drawn by the Force to the planet and Silent Hill by a strange dream of his deceased mother calling to him, was left stranded near the outskirts of the city when Alessa used a projection of her soul to make his aircraft crash. In a course of a few days, Travis, guided by Alessa, the strange connection of the Force to the planet and a desire for release from the trauma of his past, aided the girl by helping her construct a powerful Force artifact known to the Order as the Flauros. This 'cage of peace' was cunningly used by Alessa to temporarily subdue the power of Dahlia over her daughter's body, and enabled her to split her soul in two._

 _The second half of Alessa Gillespie's soul was manifested as an infant girl, left safely just outside Silent Hill, and later found by a lone Jedi named Harry Mason. Harry Mason, once a member of the Jedi Knights on Coruscant, had been expelled by the Council for falling in love with a Dantooine woman named Jodie, whom he encountered after a minor skirmish on the planet in the middle of the Clone Wars. During his desperate escape into hiding from the ongoing massacre overtaking the whole galaxy, Harry felt called to Kwekwaxawe Kanesda by the Light, and discovered the infant soon afterwards. Upon taking the child home to Dantooine, Harry and his wife Jodie named her Cheryl, unaware of her true nature and origin._

 _After Travis left, at peace with himself and knowing that he had given the girl vital aid, Alessa was left alone in a miserable state of existence. With half of her soul gone, along with much of her power, the girl was forced to wait until the time was right to call Cheryl to return. All the while, Alessa was in excruciating pain, barely recovering from her wounds. She was placed under the supervision of the greedy Dr. Kaufmann, a vile man working in tandem with the order for monetary benefit, and Lisa Garland, a young, hapless nurse trapped in her positon due to her addiction to a drug that only Kaufmann could provide._

 _7 years later, in the year 12 BBY, Alessa Gillespie would finally be granted release from her pain by the same man who had once found and adopted her other half._


	2. Chapter 2

In the dark recesses of her mind, Alessa Gillespie, now a 14 year old girl and finally healing from her horrible wounds from 7 years past, saw the hellish images race through. Demons that she had read about in stories, creatures that had terrified her with just the notion of their existence, and even twisted images of the adults that had abused her kept her ongoing nightmare from ending.

She opened her eyes groggily, and slowly sat up, seeing that she was still in her hospital room, trapped in the secret lower level of Silent Hill's Alchemilla Hospital, with Lisa nowhere in sight. Her burn wounds had gradually healed, but it was still incredibly painful just to sit up.

None of the other nurses or doctors were aware that they had a secret resident among them, as Dr. Kaufmann had cleverly pulled strings to prevent that knowledge from surfacing. Indeed, nobody in Kwekwaxawe Kanesda was aware that Alessa was alive, because her own mother and the rest of the despicable Order had purported the illusion that she had perished in the fire that had destroyed her home and several other houses in the town's business district.

Once her sleepiness faded away, an impeding sense of desperation set in as she recalled the conversation that she had overheard the prior night between her mother and Kaufmann.

" _It is time. I will use the girl's agony to force her other half to return to Silent Hill."_

" _Hurry it up! I've waited far too long for this thing of yours to be born. I expect my promised reward soon."_

" _Yes! Soon, you will have your reward, and this galaxy will finally be reborn!"_

Alessa glowered, her anger and hate surging again as she recalled yet another painful reminder that her mother viewed her as nothing more than a tool to be used in her vile rituals. She laid a hand on her womb, and turned her glare towards the creature lying temporarily dormant within her, stunted by the soul splitting that Alessa had performed.

" _I will end you, you filthy abomination, and there is nothing my mother can do to stop me!_ " she thought with a snarl, gritting her teeth and aching for the release she had failed to find for 7 long years.

She looked up as the door opened, and Lisa, her kind but weary nurse, walked in, carrying more bandages and salve. Lisa had dark circles under her eyes, and the last vestiges of compassion left in Alessa's darkened heart panged for her. It was becoming more obvious with each passing day that the care Alessa needed was taking a terrible toll on Lisa's sanity and wellbeing.

"Time to change your bandages, Alessa" Lisa told her, trying to smile, her lips barely managing to perk up.

Alessa watched as Lisa gently pulled back the clothing covering the remaining burn wounds on her torso, peeling off the old bandages and applying the cooling green salve to them. The medicine barely managed to take away the pain, but Alessa was still grateful for the meager care that Lisa provided.

Lisa finished her task slower than usual, and Alessa watched her bow her head and sigh. Lisa's blonde hair framed a face that was struggling not to break down into weeping. Alessa bit her lip, and tried to make herself speak, an ability that had only been regained recently.

"I'm…sorry" she managed to say to Lisa, shocking the girl.

Her nurse gawked at her, and then the tears finally began to fill the corners of her green eyes. Lisa nodded in acknowledgment, and gave the closed door a nervous glance as she began to speak in turn.

"You…you can tell? You didn't hear us scream last night, did you?" she asked Alessa, fidgeting with her hands.

Alessa gave her a painful nod, and told her "I'm so sorry…that I've been such a burden to you these last 7 years. Lisa…you deserved…better."

Lisa's tears streamed down her face as she laid a hand carefully on Alessa's face, brushing away her brown hair. It was a miracle in Alessa's eyes that the nurse had managed to keep any figment of a smile on her face after taking care of the horrifying wounds that the ritual had created.

"You were never a burden, Alessa. But…there's no point in hiding this apparently. Me and Dr. Kaufmann got into a horrible screaming match last night. I tried to…well, I tried to resign from this position, and he threatened to cut off my…um, my supply. It ended badly. He's still fuming, and I'm terrified that he's going to try to blackmail me into staying trapped here forever."

" _Both of us deserve better than to be trapped in this room."_

"When I first begged him to let me go, that bastard recorded everything. I can't tell anybody about what I've been doing here in Alchemilla, or he'll…"

She choked up, and couldn't speak anymore, her whole body convulsing as she continued to sob. There was nothing Alessa could do but watch in pity. Alessa knew that Lisa was telling the entire truth, for she had routinely heard that awful man screaming orders at Lisa, never missing an opportunity to treat her like an insect.

"Lisa…"

Alessa struggled, and placed her scarred hand on top of Lisa's, trying to offer some semblance of comfort.

"Soon…this will be over for us both. I'm sure of it" she told her, her plan to end their torment, and the torment of Silent Hill's civilians running through her mind in preparation.

Lisa sniffled, and asked her hesitantly "Are…are you sure?"

"I'm positively certain" Alessa told her, and she gave her nurse the warmest smile she could manage with the burns still etched on her face.

* * *

Once Lisa left the room, Alessa laid herself carefully back on the mattress, and closed her eyes, making herself relax and center on the other half of her soul living carefree on that beautiful place called "Dantooine". Images came to her mind's eye of a strong, caring man laughing heartily as he swung her other half into the air, both of them beaming at each other.

" _She's lucky…she got the father that I wished for, but never found."_

Alessa willed her mind to connect with the strange power coalescing around and through Kwekwaxawe Kanesda, feeling her conscious merge with it once more. The power answered her by giving her a crystal clear image of that girl now called Cheryl, silently imploring her to begin her plan. Alessa could feel the Light side of the Force begging her to not lose hope, as the Dark side continued to scream at her that her pain would never end, and that all she could do was continue to hate the people that had hurt her.

She pushed the Dark away, giving the Light a desperate chance at earning her trust, and cast her thoughts to the other half of her soul.

" _ **Come to Kwekwaxawe Kanesda! Come to Silent Hill!**_ _"_

At once, she felt her other half react to the message, and knew that Cheryl was bound to beg her foster father, the man named Harry Mason, to take her to Alessa's location. Alessa sneered at the thought of her mother's desire to use her pain to reunite her soul.

" _As if I'd let you, you traitorous excuse of a woman."_

Alessa knew that it was only a matter of a few days before Cheryl would be brought by Harry to the planet. Her entire being, despite its agony, was thrilled at the chance to end it all forever. The desire to die that Alessa had retained for so long had been seemingly fruitless, her attempts to fade away blocked by the demon, and her mother's spells. But with her soul soon to be completed, her plan to end her life, along with the existence of the thing in her womb, was about to be realized at last.

* * *

At night, with her mother, Kaufmann and what little survived of the Order lying asleep with a false sense of security, Alessa made herself project outwards from her shell and near the outskirts of the city, waiting and watching for the ship to land.

In the distance, in the black sky above, a white ship came into view, heading slowly towards the ground. Alessa gritted her teeth, regret and sympathy just barely peaking for the pain she was about to make the man suffer, and walked quickly towards its landing location.

The ship veered off to fast in an attempt to avoid hitting her, and Alessa watched with terror as it crash landed a few feet away. Nothing could be heard around her except the wind blowing over the grass. After minutes of waiting, the door of the craft opened, and out stumbled Cheryl.

Her other half was shaken, and she stepped onto the ground carefully. Cheryl was dressed in a simple but colorful frock of blue and pink, images of animals playing across the fabric. The girl spotted Alessa standing and watching her, her terror changing into awe-filled recognition.

"It's you!" she told Alessa, taking small steps towards her. "You're the girl that I keep seeing in my dreams! Who are you?"

Alessa gave her a small smile and told her "My name is Alessa. And I'm here because I need your help."

"My help?" Cheryl asked her in a high pitched voice.

"Yes. Bad people are trying to hurt me, and I can't do anything on my own. That's why I'm here. I need your assistance, or they will keep hurting me without end."

Cheryl gave Alessa a worried look and told her "I will do my best to help you, you poor thing! But…"

The little girl turned back to the ship and softly asked "What about daddy?"

Alessa could sense that Harry Mason was only knocked out temporarily, still very much alive with only a small head wound from the crash. Inwardly, Alessa breathed a sigh of immense relief, glad that the kind protector of her severed soul had survived.

"He will be ok. In fact, I might need his help too. But first, I need you to come with me."

Cheryl looked up at her, her brow furrowed, and she said "O-ok. I will go with you."

She walked toward Alessa hesitantly, and Alessa extended her hand towards her. Cheryl finally walked up to her, and took her hand, her palm so small next to the 14-year old girl's. Alessa looked down at her, and a sad, whimsical thought flowed through her mind as Cheryl began to glow in a soft white light.

" _She…she looks exactly like me when I was 7. Before I was burned. Except…she's truly happy."_

The two of them were bathed in the light, and Alessa was blinded for several seconds. After what seemed like forever, the light dissipated, and a powerful sensation rippled through her as she felt her soul knit itself back together. After 7 horrible years of waiting, her powers were fully restored.

But Alessa felt with a painful cramp in her womb that at the same time, the demon had been awakened too. She could feel it screaming and writhing in rage at the presence of the Jedi onboard the ship, and the massive amount of Light that had joined Alessa. Cheryl, as she had suspected, had no trace of Dark in her being, and Alessa felt herself relax for the first time in years.

" _I can do this! I can finally free myself from this thing!"_

She looked at the ship, and she felt raw love swell up within her, clashing against the tremendous hatred of the fiend inside her that was now continuing its halted growth process.

" _Thank you, Harry Mason"_ she thought, as she turned away and made her spirit project towards the northern part of Silent Hill.

" _Because of you, I now have the chance at salvation that I've sought for so long."_


	3. Chapter 3

Moments after being rejoined with Cheryl, Alessa made her soul appear in one of the corridors of the hospital, eager to share with Lisa the news that her plan for their freedom was finally set in motion. As she walked towards Lisa's room in the building, she heard muffled groaning from behind the door. Alessa paused in motion, and listened to her nurse's pained monologue.

"It's too late for me!" she could hear Lisa Garland whisper. "This time, I've gone past the point of no return! Took too much…gained too little…the pus…is flowing out of the faucet again…"

Alessa's eyes widened in horror as she recognized the meaning of Lisa's rambling words. She had overheard her nurse muttering in horror after being deprived of the strange drug she fed on. Evidently, poor Lisa had seen a river of pus flow out of the faucet in her room, and even more surreal nightmares coming out of the corners of her eyes.

"Alessa…I'm sorry…" was all the 14-year old could hear before a body fell hard to the floor beyond the door.

" _No, Lisa!"_

In her mind, she fumbled for a plan to save her fading nurse, and in her haste, she came up with an idea to freeze Lisa in time. Alessa's mind connected with the Force momentarily, and she sensed Lisa Garland being hidden away in the Otherworld that was doomed to fall upon Silent Hill the instant Alessa planted her first Seal.

" _I don't have any idea how to reverse the damage. But at least this way, I can keep her safe for a while. Just until I can find out how to heal her."_

Alessa willed away Lisa's memories, using her powers to make the nurse forget that she had ever nursed Alessa. It was another desperate move to protect Lisa, and prevent the innocent nurse from getting herself caught up in the Hell that their city was about to become.

After that, Alessa projected herself into the center of the city, and allowed her mind to drift deep into her subconscious. It was time to set her plan in motion, her counterattack to Dahlia Gillespie's vile desires. The image of that choking smoke covering her vision after the fire resurfaced, along with the ash of her ruined home dancing around her. Alessa willed that image to become reality, and within a matter of moments, Silent Hill was blanketed in a swirling white fog, with what looked like snow falling softly and instantly fading away.

To her relief, no bystanders had been dragged into her creation. By the power of the Light side, it seemed that nobody who was truly innocent would be forced to walk the altered reality of the now ruined city. The corruption of the Dark side was evident in all creation in sight, the buildings looking dilapidated and worn down, and the roads suddenly ending in abysses with no end in sight.

At the edge of the city, Alessa could sense a tired and confused Harry Mason stumbling in through the one path open. She stood rooted in spot, filled with both an aching desire to show herself to him, and the hesitation that came with the knowledge that he wouldn't realize who she was. The demon in her womb was still writhing in hatred at the presence of somebody so drawn to the Light, even though he wasn't in close proximity.

Alessa knew that even a Jedi, those warriors of the Light that her mother and the rest of the cult had mocked for as long as she could remember, would not be truly prepared for the horrors that the Dark would present through her manifested nightmares. Her Force-given senses told her that the man was headed for a small restaurant in the western part of the city, no doubt to attempt relaxation and gather his senses. With just a thought, Alessa was inside the building, tiny, deserted, with metal seats and tables scattered around with nobody to serve.

She placed a hand over a corner table, and willed a small pocket communicator, like the ones used in the Clone Wars, to manifest.

" _He can use this to know when those…things are approaching. It should give off an alarming noise. I need him to fight through and stay alive, or this plan of mine will fall apart."_

After manifesting the device, and also subtly leaving a note in Cheryl's writing that said "To School", she teleported away from the restaurant and towards her school, the destination of her first mark. Her goal was to recreate the mysterious Seal of Metatron, an arcane symbol used by the first people of Kwekwaxawe Kanesda to amplify their spiritual powers, in certain locations throughout the city. With a total of 5 marks, she would draw power lines connecting the Seals, and unleash a destructive power that would finally end her misery, and destroy the fiend in her womb forever.

Along with the wandering Jedi, Alessa could sense a new presence walking into the city. A woman, a stray Imperial officer who called herself Cybil Bennett. From what Alessa could feel, this woman was filled with conflicting emotions about her duty. Alessa was able to glance through her memories, and shuddered at what she could see through Cybil's eyes: masses of innocents being gunned down by the armies of the Empire. Men, women and children perished at the command of Cybil's commander, a cruel looking old man called Tarkin.

The officer was wandering to the same spot as Harry, to Alessa's amusement.

" _Interesting. Well, I suppose he'll need some help along the way."_

On the school grounds, Alessa stood in the middle of a garden surrounded by hedges, what was meant to be a pleasant relaxation spot for the students and faculty alike. But to Alessa, this area was just another branch of the agony-filled halls that contained tormented memories of her fellow students ostracizing her.

"Witch!" they had all called her, after seeing firsthand evidence of the mysterious powers she had.

" _And dearly beloved mother did nothing to stop it."_

From what Alessa knew, Dahlia had finally figured out that her daughter was currently out of body, and temporarily free of her prison. The evil woman was currently roaming the city, searching for her daughter and hoping to recapture her.

The girl ignored her anxiety, and began to meditate within the garden, focusing her power, and aching to fulfill her plan quickly. A few hours passed idly as her power built up, to the point that she could inscribe the Seal of Metatron upon the grounds of the school. She sensed that both Harry and Cybil were wandering through the city. Thanks to her note, Harry was headed straight for the school, where Alessa knew he would discover the depths of her agony.

The power of the Force had created numerous bizarre puzzles with seemingly little meaning for Harry to solve, one of which had him headed towards a secret passage through the tall clock tower in the corner of the garden. Down below was a hidden room used by older students to dispose of improper items, namely drinks that were forbidden by school rules. Alessa couldn't hope to comprehend the will of the Force manifesting in such a manner.

She hid herself out of sight, shrouding her spirit in the foliage surrounding the garden, and used her sight to watch Harry's progress through the school. The Dark side had created twisted manifestations of her cruel classmates, small, grey creatures that eagerly attacked the Jedi with razor-sharp weapons, just as Alessa had been attacked over and over again. He fended them off using his lightsaber, a dark blue weapon that hacked through the creatures like paper. Soon enough, the man had discovered the secret tunnel down below through the tower, and Alessa knew that it was time.

Just as Harry walked through the door of the tower, Alessa used her power to slowly inscribe upon the stone walkway of the garden the intricate Seal of Metatron. At that instant, no doubt from her memory of the same noise she heard as the medicals had taken her away, a baleful siren began to echo across the city.

Everywhere in sight, the area slowly transformed into Alessa's nightmarish perception of Silent Hill: a city of death and suffering, with blood splattered across the area, numerous faceless corpses manifested, and the surfaces of the town shifting into racks of twisted metal links. Below this new ground lay an abyss filled with the fear and pain of the Dark side, something that Alessa had no desire to explore. The siren echoed away as Alessa teleported into the lowermost level of the demented building.

" _This is it. This is what that monster has been showing me for 7 years, the endless vision that I can't escape. This is all that I can remember this place to be, the sight of my torture at the hands of so many people. I can only hope that Harry Mason can survive, even with his skills."_

In the bottommost room of the school, Alessa could sense that an especially twisted creature had been manifested by the power of the Dark side, a fiend resembling an enemy she had read about in one of the storybooks kept in her room. It was only a matter of time before Harry encountered it, and Alessa teleported herself into a room adjacent to the creature's lair, desiring to leave behind vital information to defeat it.

With an ironic smirk on her face, Alessa manifested that same storybook, leaving it open to the scene where the hunter killed it, the text perfectly describing how the man did it. She turned away, and hid herself in the shadows of the lair, waiting for Harry to descend.

After a long period of waiting, he finally did, and at last she was able to see him clearly. He was a tall, stocky man with short brown hair, dressed in a simple brown robe resembling the Jedi cloaks of old. Harry approached the creature, a demonic lizard, with his saber drawn and ready, its blue light serving as vital illumination. Alessa watched as he attacked the creature just as the hunter had in the story, and in a matter of moments, the thing was defeated.

The awful siren erupted around them, and the room began to fade away in a dreamlike manner. Soon, everything was covered in a darkness that not even his saber could pierce. Alessa glanced down at her hands and nervously wrung them, not sure what would happen when she revealed herself to him.

She heard Harry gasp as the siren faded away, and she looked up in shock to see him looking right at her with an awed expression. Alessa turned to him, and felt pain surging through her abdomen as the growing demon silently seethed with hatred at the sight of the Jedi. Alessa only managed to offer him a shy half smile through her own shock, and forced herself to fade out of the school and away towards the central part of the city. As she did, she willed into creation the key Harry needed to access the bridge connecting the two halves of Silent Hill's northern part.

" _So that's him. I was not ready to speak to him, it seems. Oh well. The time is soon to come. But will he believe me when I reveal to him that Cheryl was part of me? Will this man understand that he cared for half of my soul for these last 7 years?"_

Alessa then paused, hearing the bells of her mother's sanctuary tolling in the distance. She gritted her teeth in realization that Dahlia had no doubt learned of Harry's passage through the city. It was likely that the woman would trick the innocent Jedi into bringing Alessa back into her clutches, all in the guise that Dahlia was aiding him in finding Cheryl. The girl's chances of being able to talk peacefully with Harry Mason were now jeopardized, forcing her to move even faster towards her plan's completion.

" _This is bad. All that man cares about is finding Cheryl. He can't hope to understand that…he will never find her. It's too late. She and I have rejoined, and I can't afford to reverse that when I finally have the opportunity to destroy this fiend."_

" _I've already placed one Seal. Next…Alchemilla. By the time mo…Dahlia discovers my choice of location, it will already be too late for her to stop me. I just hope that Lisa is doing ok."_

With that, she teleported just outside the white walls of the hospital, preparing herself to walk through its falsely peaceful corridors.


End file.
